But according to the man who broke the “Gunwalker” story a year and a half ago, threatening letters to Speaker Boehner might no longer be necessary. Sources in Washington, DC have told blogger and citizen reporter Mike Vanderboegh that Republican leaders have already decided to close down the Fast and Furious investigation and halt contempt proceedings against Eric Holder. . .

Now the WJC's work on the Gunwalker scandal has in the past been at best duplicative, at worst plagiaristic and always subject to exaggerated headlines which they craft out of half cloth. They did not attempt to interview me for this story, which ought to tell you everything you need to know since they make me the center of it.

Here is what I know currently about the subjects of the contempt citation and the backroom fighting amongst the GOP leadership and rank-and-file that has been going on. If it seems frustratingly opaque, that is because the parties have been singularly effective at imposing a news blackout so that they either:

a. Do not compromise their very clever plans to lay low the Obamanoids, or

b. Don't want us to find about a sellout until the very last minute.

First, you should understand that no one on the Committee -- staffers or Congressmen -- communicates with me directly these days. My emails are not answered. My requests even through third or fourth parties are ignored.

Despite this, I am assured indirectly through cut-outs by people supposedly "close to the Committee" that all will be revealed by the middle of June at the latest and they fairly beg me not to do something that "will discredit the investigation" -- presumably my threat to begin a campaign to break GOP windows as punishment for a possible Boehner sellout. Some of these arguments have been quite eloquent and factually persuasive, pointing out linkages I had not considered.

There is, in truth, no real loss in waiting as at least someone there in DC seems to recognize the serious of my intent and there is plenty of time to wreck maximum discredit and disruption on GOP election hopes -- and that includes Romney. The leadership of both sides have been able to hide behind the lack of press coverage and they like it that way. We, however, have the power to change that if necessary. There is plenty of time and there are plenty of rocks laying about -- and a salivating collectivist media who would like nothing better than to lay vandalism charges at the foot of the GOP.

Just understand, as the WJC apparently does not, that when I report what some of my sources say, it is not my conclusion. I have been very plain with y'all about the "nacht und nebel" that has been thrown up around the Holder contempt citation. Indeed, if I HAD concluded that, I would have issued a call to action already.

I await further events. But the Committee, and especially Obama's golf partner John Boehner, should not conclude that we will wait forever on hazy promises sent fourth-hand.

The word petard comes from the Middle French peter, to break wind, from pet expulsion of intestinal gas, from Latin peditum, from neuter of peditus, past participle of pedere, to break wind; akin to Greek bdein to break wind. . .

The word remains in modern usage in the phrase hoist with one's own petard, which means "to be harmed by one's own plan to harm someone else" or "to fall into one's own trap," literally implying that one could be lifted up (hoist, or blown upward) by one's own bomb. -- Wikipedia:

I mulled over whether to notice this latest Kerodin donnybrook or not: "We Stand Apart ." When I received about twenty plus emails drawing my attention to its beginning, middle and current state as summed up by Kerodin and asking for reaction, I finally decided to go over and read the post and comments. So, here is my reaction:

Sad, even tragic for some of these individuals, but totally predictable when people seek leaders with feet of clay, rather than organize locally around principle. The anomie of the Internet causes some to counter their feelings of isolation by seeking larger groups as allies and then wonder why they have a falling out. Organize locally. Be your own leader. Then you can't be sold out, compromised or discredited by anybody but yourself. What is the result of all this angst? To waste time and dishearten honest folks who got sucked into it. I was there in the 90s and this is simply back to the future stuff. Perfectly predictable because the clock's come 'round again.

Permit me this snark, however. Obviously this is all about egos. Wasn't that the explanation they seized on to castigate me when I rejected Kerodin as a standard bearer for anything, let alone the Three Percent ideal? Yes, it must be just the clash of egos. And everybody else are just "splitters" in the best Pythonesque tradition. ;-)

WAYNE COUNTY (WTVD) -- Three men are charged with stealing fully-automatic machine guns from a Wayne County gun shop.

Deputies were called to a break-in at WT's Gun Shop on Centura Drive in Goldsboro May 14. More than $70,000 worth of weapons were taken, including 10 handguns and two fully-automatic .45 caliber machine guns.

Following an investigation by the Wayne County Sheriff's Office, the Mount Olive Police Department, Goldsboro police, and the ATF, Kevin Dejuan Walters, 23, Quandre Roshawn Weeks, 20, and Benjamin James Carraway, 24, were arrested.

The men face a host of charges that include possession of stolen firearms and possession of weapons of mass destruction.

Source: The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights
Recipient: Speaker John Boehner

The Honorable John Boehner

Speaker of the House

U. S. House of Representatives

Washington, DC 20515

Dear Speaker Boehner:

On behalf of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and the undersigned organizations, we write in response to a May 21, 2012 report in Politico that the House of Representatives will vote to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress if he fails to provide additional information related to the “Fast and Furious” program. We are deeply troubled by the prospect that the Attorney General will be cited for contempt by the House, and believe that such action is unwarranted. We urge you to reconsider that decision.

While we believe that a review of the Fast and Furious program is a legitimate exercise of congressional authority, we are concerned that the tenor and approach you are reportedly taking does a disservice to Congress, the Attorney General’s office, and the public, and may also be a partisan attempt to discredit the Attorney General.

The Attorney General has acknowledged problems and flaws in the Fast and Furious program. According to reports, the Attorney General and the Department of Justice have submitted more than 7000 pages of document to Congress, and the Attorney General has appeared before Congress on this issue a reported seven times. The Department has also reportedly made several senior officials available for testimony, interviews, and briefings.

In addition, the Attorney General has ordered the Inspector General to investigate and has provided him with tens of thousands of additional documents—documents that would be inappropriate to turn over to Congress, because they reportedly include law enforcement information, grand jury transcripts, and other information that would compromise ongoing investigations and prosecutions.

To put it simply, the attempt to cite General Holder for contempt seems to be a rush to judgment intended to create a stain on the office of the Attorney General. It is contributing to an environment of accusatory vitriol and malignant suspicion that is both unwarranted and a significant distraction at a time when the Attorney General needs to focus on the nation’s core problems. The harshness of the attacks themselves is misplaced, and to the extent these attacks are intended to divert the Attorney General from the vigorous enforcement of the nation's laws—including those protecting civil rights, voting rights, disability rights, and other core concerns—we are deeply troubled. We are concerned that the contempt threat is intended to create a hostile environment aimed at pressuring the Attorney General to resign. This development is particularly disturbing because of the exemplary job the Attorney General has done in enforcing the nation’s civil rights laws.

The constituencies that we represent are eager to see our leaders focus on job creation, the continued reinvigoration of our economy, and the rooting out of waste, fraud and abuse. We urge you to reconsider this course of action. Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

African American Ministers in Action

The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee

AFSCME

Asian American Justice Center, member of Asian American Center for Advancing Justice

The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights

NAACP

National Association of Human Rights Workers

National Association of Social Workers National Center for Transgender Equality

National Partnership for Women and Families National Fair Housing Alliance

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

“The United States prioritizes the right to keep and bear arms over the protection of citizens' lives and personal security and exercises lax firearm possession control, causing rampant gun ownership,” the report claims. “The U.S. people hold between 35 percent and 50 percent of the world' s civilian-owned guns, with every 100 people having 90 guns [and] 47 percent of American adults reported that they had a gun.”

With the threat of a contempt charge hanging over Attorney General Eric Holder, 14 civil rights, labor, and liberal activist groups Tuesday urged Speaker of the House John Boehner not to proceed to a contempt vote.

The organizations which are closely allied with the Obama administration charged that to hold the attorney general in contempt for failing to turn over demanded documents on the "fast and furious" investigation "seems to be a rush to judgment intended to create a stain on the office of the attorney general."

The two-page letter, written by the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights repeats the claims made by the Justice Department in refusing to provide sensitive internal law enforcement documents. The organizations said Holder has already turned over the disputed documents to the inspector general for his ongoing investigation into the flawed gun-smuggling operation. "They reportedly include law enforcement information, grand jury transcripts, and other information that would compromise ongoing investigations and prosecutions," the letter said.

House Republicans have repeatedly threatened to vote a contempt citation against Holder for failing to adequately respond to a subpoena issued last October.

The Justice Department has acknowledged the operation was flawed and the ATF should not have allowed illegally purchased weapons to "walk" across the Mexican border to drug cartels.

No date has been set for the committee to vote on a contempt charge, which would need to precede a vote by the full House.

House Republican leaders had no immediate comment on the letter sent to Boehner.

Although they seem to have released this letter to CNN, they have not yet posted it on their website. Obviously, however, the White House is pulling out all the stops for the "no justice, no peace" mantra. Or, put otherwise, "leave our black brother Eric alone or there will be riots."

Saturday, May 26, 2012

The Southern Poverty Law Center published a new report this week on 30 up-and-coming leaders of the radical right. There are some old familiars on the list, like David Duke, and many others who probably won't come as much of a surprise to regular Mother Jones readers. SPLC singles out some of the chorus of anti-Muslim activists like Pam Geller, Frank Gaffney and David Yerushalmi as people to keep an eye on. There are some gay-bashers in there, too. Birther-conspiracy theorist Joseph Farah, the founder of WorldNet Daily, also makes the list. But not everyone on the group seems to rise to the level of menace that SPLC suggests.

Among those might be Mike Vanderboegh, a former militia activist from Alabama. Vanderboegh is probably most famous these days for having encouraged readers of his blog to break the windows of Democratic Party headquarters after the passage of health care reform, which prompted some of his readers to toss bricks through the windows of a few Democratic congressional offices.

Vanderboegh, though, is a bit more of a complicated character than the SPLC has made him out to be. His rhetoric is certainly inflammatory, but it's also mostly confined to his blog, which has a very small following. Vanderboegh has also helped bring to light some evidence of wrongdoing on the part of the government in the "Fast and Furious" gun scandal, in which the federal government allowed guns to be illegally exported to Mexico in the hopes of tracking them to major drug cartel leaders. (The ATF agents ended up losing track of thousands of the guns, which later turned up at crime scenes in Mexico and the US.) He's also got a sense of humor, a rare quality in an extremist. He responded to his inclusion on the list by writing a blog post about it that included a photoshopped picture of Mark Potok, the SPLC senior fellow who tracks right-wing extremism, wearing a tin-foil hat.

The Army has ordered that soldiers may use only government-issued magazines with their M4 carbines, a move that effectively bans one of the most dependable and widely used commercial-made magazines on today’s battlefield.

The past decade of war has spawned a wave of innovation in the commercial soldier weapons and equipment market. As a result, trigger-pullers in the Army, Marines and various service special operations communities now go to war armed with commercially designed kit that’s been tested under the most extreme combat conditions.

Near the top of such advancements is the PMAG polymer M4 magazine, introduced by Magpul Industries Corp. in 2007. Its rugged design has made it as one of the top performers in the small-arms accessory arena, according to combat veterans who credit the PMAG with drastically improving the reliability of the M4.

Despite the success of the PMAG, Army officials from the TACOM Life Cycle Management Command issued a “safety of use message” in April that placed it, and all other polymer magazines, on an unauthorized list.

The message did not single out PMAGs, but instead authorizes only the use of Army-issued aluminum magazines. The message offers little explanation for the new policy except to state that “Units are only authorized to use the Army-authorized magazines listed in the technical manuals.” Nor does it say what Army units should now do with the millions of dollars’ worth of PMAGs they’ve purchased over the years.

Magpul officials have been reluctant to comment on the issue. Robert Vidrine, vice president of marketing and sales, said the company found out about TACOM’s message only after it was released to the field.

The decision has left combat troops puzzled, since the PMAG has an Army-approved national stock number, which allows units to order them through the Army supply system.

“This just follows a long line of the Army, and military in general, not listening to the troops about equipment and weaponry,” said one Army infantryman serving in Southwest Afghanistan, who asked not to be identified.

“The PMAG is a great product … lightweight and durable. I have seen numerous special ops teams from all services pass through here, and they all use PMAGs. Also, a large amount of Marine infantry here use PMAGS, including their Force Recon elements.”

TACOM officials said the message was issued because of “numerous reports that Army units are using unauthorized magazines,” TACOM spokesman Eric Emerton said in a written response to questions from Military.com. Emerton added that only “authorized NSNs have ever been included in the technical manuals. Just because an item has an NSN, does not mean the Army is an authorized user.”

This seems to be a complete policy reversal, since PMAGs are standard issue with the Army’s 75th Ranger Regiment and they have been routinely issued to infantry units before war-zone deployments.

Of course when all these P-Mags are dutifully turned in, they will be promptly crushed. Insanity.

Friday, May 25, 2012

US Military Cemetery in Taguig City, South East of Manila, Philippines.

I will be spending some time with my family this weekend (both daughters home) so I cannot promise much in the way of posting. Unless, of course, we have breaks in the Gunwalker Scandal. I am hearing more positive stuff out of DC from people I trust, so maybe . . . just keep checking. In any case, what time I commit will be largely to the Absolved project. Remember the reason for the holiday. With Matt in Afghanistan now, I feel it keenly and I hope you do too.

A man's posts on U.S. Rep. Jeff Duncan's Facebook page are drawing scrutiny from Anderson County and federal law enforcement officials.

In a Wednesday morning post on Duncan's Facebook page, a man identifying himself as David Butler wrote that President Barack Obama has committed treason.

"The punishment for treason, how delicious is hanging," Butler posted, a response to the Republican congressman's comments about how he is sick and tired of "hearing President Obama demonize success in this country."

Butler posted additional comments in the same thread, including the following: "Militia action is warranted, but not needed yet ... Peaceful marches to escort the traitors out of office should suffice for now."

Duncan's staff removed the comments referring to treason and hanging from his Facebook page on Thursday. His staff also contacted the Capitol Police in Washington, D.C., and the Anderson County Sheriff's Office.

Anderson County Sheriff John Skipper said Thursday that he has assigned an investigator to look into the congressman's concerns about Butler's Facebook posts.

Skipper also said his office recently learned about some additional comments that Butler left on another Facebook page. He said his staff has shared this information with the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division.

A spokesman for U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham confirmed Thursday that his office also has been notified about a post that Butler left on Duncan's Facebook page that could be construed as a threat against the Republican senator from South Carolina.

"We are aware of the situation, but that is all we will say," Graham spokesman Kevin Bishop wrote in an email.

Michael Kiger, chairman of the Pickens County Democratic Party, said he spoke to a U.S. Secret Service agent based in Greenville on Wednesday night about Butler's post that mentions treason by Obama.

Efforts to contact Butler, whom a law enforcement official said also is known as William David Butler, through his link on Duncan's Facebook page were unsuccessful Thursday.

According to his Facebook page, Butler lives in Anderson. Skipper could not confirm where Butler lives.

Butler's Facebook page and some of the posts he left on Duncan's Facebook page mention his support for two groups: Oath Keepers and Three Percenter.

The Anti-Defamation League and the Southern Poverty Law Center each have listed Oath Keepers as an extremist anti-government group.

According to its website, Oath Keepers describes itself as a nonpartisan association of active military members, veterans, law enforcement officials and firefighters who are committed to defending the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic.

The group's motto is "Not on our watch!"

The Oath Keepers website includes articles on topics such as how Wall Street banks are secretly building the world's largest private army. The site also has a section devoted to Operation Sleeping Giant, which urges veterans to prepare to defeat the "domestic enemies of our Constitution."

As part of Operation Sleeping Giant, veterans are advised to stockpile food, fuel and medical supplies and to create barter networks based on the use of gold and silver as money.

Three Percenter is a pro-Second Amendment group. The name refers to the 3 percent of the population in colonial America that took up arms in the Revolutionary War.

Look, I do not do Facebook, viewing it as a positive social and cultural evil. However, posting comments about hanging Obama on a Congressman's page seems to me to be self-evidently stupid. There is undoubtedly more to this story but so far it seems to me to be within the limits of the First Amendment, still I would like to know if anybody knows this fellow. I need the whole story.

BREAKING: “Dan Restrepo, Senior Director for the Western Hemisphere at the National Security Council, will leave the White House next month. Restrepo has been President Obama’s point man on policy in the Americas since early 2007, and made history in April 2009 as the first person to speak Spanish from the White House podium. He plans to reacquaint himself with his family before heading to the private sector.

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama -- Three Alabama men are among 30 people from around the nation profiled in a report released Wednesday by the Southern Poverty Law Center on what the group characterizes as key leaders of radical right groups.

"Their divisive propaganda, which is being embraced by opportunistic politicians and pundits and exploited for partisan gain, is doing real damage to our country," Mark Potok, senior fellow at the Montgomery-based center and editor of the new report, said in a prepared statement. . .

The Alabama men highlighted in the report are Michael Vanderboegh of Pinson, described by the report as a "Patriot leader;" Michael Hill of Killen, with League of the South, described as a neo-Confederate group; and Timothy Turner of Ozark, described as being with the Sovereign Citizens Movement. . .

Vanderboegh disputed the center's characterization of him. "The so-called 'Patriot Movement' is a false construction of the SPLC to be able to conflate large numbers of dissimilar and even opposing philosophies for the purposes of creating fundraising bogeymen to scare their donors," he wrote in an email. He described himself as a long-time leader of the constitutional militia movement.

Conducting a training class in communications and sensors, getting ready to work the border, 2005.

The center's profile on Vanderboegh states he dislikes immigrants. "I worked the border in October 2005 in support of the Minutemen," Vanderboegh wrote. "I do not 'dislike' immigrants nor have I ever written such ... I did oppose the Bush administration's failure to enforce the immigration laws of this country as a direct threat to the rule of law."

The profile on him states that in 2010, after Congress passed President Obama's health care reform bill, Vanderboegh used his Sipsey Street Irregulars blog to urge opponents to throw bricks through the windows of Democratic offices nationwide. Bricks were thrown through several offices around the nation.

"Specifically I called for the breaking of local Democrat Party headquarters windows," Vanderboegh wrote. "Political vandalism to make a point is a fine old American tradition, going back to original Sons of Liberty."

The report also notes the arrests in November of four men, ranging in age from their 50s to 70s, with a Georgia militia charged with allegedly planning attacks against government officials and buildings. The planned attacks were inspired, in part, by an online novel published by Vanderboegh, according to news reports and the center's report.

"Blaming me for the 'Georgia Geriatric Militia' is like blaming Tom Clancy for September 11," Vanderboegh said.

One professor who studied and wrote a book on the growth of militia groups in the aftermath of the Oklahoma City bombing questioned the tone of the center's report.

"Dispassionate unbiased analysis it is not," said Robert Churchill, associate professor of history at the University of Hartford, Conn., who wrote "To Shake Their Guns in the Tyrant's Face: Libertarian Political Violence and the Origins of the Militia Movement."

Churchill wrote in an email that he believes the center takes a few cheap shots at Vanderboegh, including the attempted link to the Georgia militia case and questioning Vanderboegh's claims that he was a moderate who denounced neo-Nazis. "Vanderboegh was in fact a very important anti-racist voice within the militia movement in the 1990s," Churchill wrote.

Here's some quotes responding to the SPLC screed that didn't make it into the paper:

As to the "posturing as a civic improver by leading attacks on a botched gun investigation," they are referring to the fact that I broke the "Fast and Furious" scandal story in December, 2010, verifying whistleblower accounts through my own sources within the ATF. I, along with my fellow gun rights blogger David Codrea, was subsequently responsible for linking up whistleblowers like ATF agent John Dodson first with Senator Sessions' office and then with Senator Grassleys'. The SPLC, which has long had a symbiotic relationship with ATF (they defended ATF during the racist Good O' Boys Roundup scandal) is likely taking this opportunity to express their dislike of my criticism of their gravy train. (Ask SPLC how much they make from Federal law enforcement contracts providing "extremist training" to federal and state LE agencies. They will not tell you.)

SPLC: "In that role, he has been regularly consulted as an expert by Fox News, which hasn’t bothered to mention his background as a militia leader or instigator of criminal brick-throwing attacks."

My reply: In my year and a half of working the Fast and Furious scandal, I have been interviewed by William LaJuennesse of FOX exactly twice. If that constitutes "regular" it is a definition contrary to the one in Webster's. . .

SPLC: "That would be officials of the very same government, as it turns out, that sends Mike Vanderboegh, each and every month, a disability check for $1,300."

My reply: Accurate as far as it goes. The collectivists such as SPLC, MSNBC and others have made much of the fact that I am on SS disability for this princely sum. My doctor suggested I apply after I was diagnosed with congestive heart failure. It was immediately granted without reference to any lawyer. What really galls these professional liars for money is either (a) that I am getting some of the forty plus years that I paid into Social Security back while they understand that they'll never draw theirs, (b) more likely, they understand the ancient guerrilla warrior logistics tactic of living off the substance of the enemy.

My conclusion to the email: SPLC gets by with their years of lies, conflations and half-truths simply because you in the media never look under their skirts. They have been denounced by ex-employees (see Montgomery Advertiser series in the 1990s, "Marketing the Militias"); by activists on the left who despise them more than I do; by old civil rights foot soldiers who sneer that Dees is a "civil rights pimp" who started out defending Klansmen and then saw where the money was; by Dees ex-partner, the founder of Habitat for Humanity and by non-partisan, non-profit watchdog groups.

Yet they get by with ad hominem attacks such as the sneer just dissected because you in the press view them as "extremist experts." One might as well write a history of the Jews in Spain by relying solely upon the memoirs of Cardinal Francisco Jimenez, the Grand Inquisitor.

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) might not have the votes in his own committee to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress.

A number of Republicans on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee are wary of moving forward with Issa’s proposed measure, putting the powerful chairman in an awkward position as he attempts to build support for the move. . .

Two of the committee’s 23 Republicans have declined to support the measure at this point, while five other GOP panel members did not respond to repeated requests for comment over the last two weeks.

When compared with the 16 Republicans on the committee who have actively been speaking in favor of the measure, the silence, lack of outspoken support and desire by these eight GOP caucus members to avoid the issue could be a problem for Issa.

Republican leadership has been hesitant and reluctant to voice its support for Issa’s move, possibly owing to the chairman’s inability to guarantee the measure’s passage in his own committee. . .

Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.) plans to hold off making a decision on whether he will support the measure until Issa puts forward a final version of the resolution and formally introduces it, his office told The Hill. Rep. Frank Guinta’s (R-N.H.) office said the lawmaker declined to comment on whether he supports Issa’s measure.

I received this little bit of news this morning while I was in the ER yet again. I made some calls from there. What I learned made me livid. One source I trust implicitly says that the story is correct.

"They (the GOP leadership) don't think that they will suffer for failure to follow through. They're scared of Holder's race card. . . they're scared of Trayvon. They think if they let Issa fail, that it will only be a story in the blogosphere for a day . . . that they can weather it. . . . They exert pressure behind the scenes on those weak-kneed bastards (GOP congressmen), promise them shit and when the vote happens it will only look like Issa's case was weak. . . It will be his fault, not theirs."

Another source close to the committee claims that the entire story is disinformation planted by the White House "to get the GOP fighting each other and blame Boehner for it." I explained to several people I talked to just how this story would play on the street among people who are already upset at the glacially slow pace.

"Don't they understand that this is the final crisis of their own legitimacy?" I fairly screamed into the phone at one. "Don't they understand how poorly some are going to react?" I added, "You know there's a whole lot of folks who have lost all faith in the system, people who don't listen to me about restraint and letting the system work. Doesn't Boehner understand that this is his last f--king chance to prove his oath means anything to him before people start acting on that? Does he really think this will have no consequences for him?"

I sent word that I wanted to hear from someone at the Committee directly, to give them the opportunity to convince me that despite the evidence this really was disinformation. It is evening. I haven't heard a word.

I promised this to one source and told him to spread it around: "If I have to put my sorry, cancer ridden, half-dead ass on the line and break the sedition laws of the United States by calling for targeted civil disobedience, vandalism and monkey wrenching on these GOP traitors to their oaths, then I will do it. . . What have I got to lose? If Boehner wishes us to believe that he is NOT dragging his feet then let him issue a press release tomorrow denying the AP story." I pointed out that I have a certain history of pushing the sedition laws and that the press -- who they seem entirely eager to avoid -- could not fail to cover the first broken window, or the second or third. Rachel Madcow would be all over the story. Let them contemplate that and its effect on the Romney campaign.

The sources defending Boehner who claim disinformation begged for me to wait until the Tuesday after Memorial Day when Holder's deadline is up. In the meantime, anybody who lives in the congressional districts of these weak sisters that Boehner seems to pressuring needs to get hold of them by email, fax, phone or shouting in his face and tell them what you think of their being Obama's patsies.

I am sending this out on my own email list. I urge all of you to do the same. This is the final crisis of the search for justice in the Gunwalker scandal. If they get away with this, we have lost. I will have more as events unfold.

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

A reader asks, and although I have my opinions, I'm wondering what you readers have to say. Remember to look at it from two points of view, from the big shooter forced to deal with a weapon with too short length of pull and a small statured shooter using a weapon with too long a length of pull.

Monday, May 14, 2012

A GOP aide also warned against a racial backlash if Republicans are seen as unfairly targeting the first black attorney general, who is serving under the first black president. “Especially after Trayvon,” the aide said, referring to slain Florida teenager Trayvon Martin.

Sunday, May 13, 2012

Am looking for a copy of the out-of-print 1991 softcover reprint (couldn't possibly afford one of the 1949 originals) of Bataan Uncensored by Ernest B. Miller and republished by the Minnesota Historical Society. Can't find one on the Internet. Any ideas?

Interesting analysis, as far as it goes. My own analysis would point out that predatory, collectivist governments almost always benefit from such chaos, which in any case is a function of class and culture, not race. I once met a National Guard veteran of the Detroit riot in 1967 at a show of the Ohio Gun Collectors Association, probably about 1977 or so. The conversation somehow got around to the riot and the efficacy of M-1 Garand fire on arsonists. The veteran had shot a rioter about to set fire to a building and was completely unapologetic. "What was I supposed to do? Kiss him?" he asked rhetorically. The Guardsman was black. The riots were used later that year as an excuse for the passage of the Gun Control Act of 1968. It ain't about race, it's about power, folks -- mostly government power. Keep that in mind.

"In war, moral power is to physical as three parts out of four." -- Attributed to Napoleon by Maturin M. Ballou, Treasury of Thought, p. 407 (1899).

It is said that Naploeon read an early French translation of Sun Tzu's Art of War, although I doubt he was entirely conversant with the complexities of that Chinese general's discussions of the importance of ch'i, sometimes rendered as troop morale, or moral force.

Paging through Ralph D. Sawyer's translation and historical introduction of Art of War about 2 in the morning, I came across the quote below in one of the footnotes, which bears remembering, especially if you are committed Christian fighting for a principle that you don't mind dying for.

The concept and manipulation of ch'i have already been briefly discussed in the introduction. They are fundamental topics in the military writings; each thinker proposes different methods for attaining courage, for developing the ch'i necessary in the soldiers. A separate monograph on the psychology of ch'i in battlefield contexts would be required to fully address the subject, which might well be summarized by a passage from the Wei Liao-tzu: "Now the means by which the general fights is the people; the means by which the people fight is their ch'i. When their ch'i is substantial they will fight; when their ch'i has been snatched away they will run off." (Combat Awesomeness," p. 247). The ideal was to nurture warriors oblivious to death, who would therefore fight with invincibility and awesome power. The image of a warrior committed to death is found in several writings, sometimes placed in . . . the Wu-tzu -- in the woods. Wu Ch'i said: "Now if there is a murderous villain hidden in the woods, even though one thousand men pursue him they all look around like owls and glance about like wolves. Why? They are afraid that violence will erupt and harm them personally. Thus one man oblivious to life and death can frighten one thousand."

I have my own criticisms of BoA which track with this "Three Percent Declaration." However, making BoA a Three Percent target is a red herring and a distraction. I am surprised at some of these names. I thought they had more sense. Seeing Kerodin and his fellow traveler Bill Nye does not surprise me. In fact, their inclusion makes perfect sense. Hell, it was probably their idea. What does this waste of time have to do with preparedness, training, logistics? Does it strike at the legitimacy of the collectivists in government? Will BoA be sending raid parties to your door? No. There are plenty of other organizations and movements targeting the "banksters." Making what appears to be common cause with the Occupy Wall Street meme is a waste of time and self-defeating. It is, in fact, what the collectivists in charge of the regime who WILL send raid parties to your door -- if they think they can get away with it -- want.

I have no objection to attacking BoA's predatory practices, but associating the Three Percent name to this cause is the result of fuzzy thinking or deliberate distraction.

LATER: By the way Bill, your wish to see me "die rotting from the inside out" will not now, apparently, be granted any time soon. Sorry to disappoint you. ;-)

I seem to recall my being vilified for running stories early on that Boehner and his GOP "leadership" were trying to help the Gunwalker Conspiracy by roadblocking the investigation. They denied it then. Now, they are hiding.

Hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt? Not so fast, says House Republican leadership.

Speaker John Boehner of Ohio, Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Virginia and Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy of California have decided to slow Rep. Darrell Issa’s drive to hold the attorney general in contempt over the controversial Fast and Furious program, a move that could infuriate conservatives who have been calling for Holder’s resignation.

The delay could be a month or even longer, according to lawmakers and aides familiar with the issue.

Some within House GOP leadership circles would like Issa to abandon his plan for a committee and floor vote, which was sparked by a 64-page memo last week, which laid out the case for contempt.

They fear negative political fallout from citing the U.S. attorney general with contempt of Congress in an election year.

House GOP leaders are remaining mum on their plans. On Wednesday, Boehner, Cantor and McCarthy met privately — without any staff present — to discuss how to handle what many House Republicans complain is a glacially slow investigation into the scandal, according to several sources with knowledge of the meeting. . .

Republican leaders are pushing Issa to do more committee work and to build bipartisan support for the contempt resolution before they let it come to the floor for a vote.

But Republican leadership’s resistance to a contempt vote is a major development in the Fast and Furious scandal and one that risks the wrath of the conservative movement. The botched federal program has become a cause célèbre for conservatives, who cite it as an example of what they consider a corrupt and reckless government. . .

Yet despite the detailed committee memo and more than a year of hearings, GOP leaders still don’t think the case is “rock solid,” according to an aide.

The three top House Republicans are worried about both the legal and political implications of the move, especially six months before what is already expected to be a razor-close election. And now, committee sources say they’ll have to wait at least another month — or even longer — before the panel even brings up the contempt measure. . .

Boehner declined to comment to a reporter in the Capitol on Wednesday. Cantor, who is responsible for committee chairs, told POLITICO to “stay tuned.” A Cantor spokesman said he was unavailable for an interview Wednesday, and his staff has permanently canceled the majority leader’s weekly pen and pad. McCarthy’s office also declined an interview request.

The committee didn’t predict the situation to play out this way. Earlier this week, members of Issa’s investigatory panel were hoping to vote next week to hold the attorney general in contempt for not sending requested information to Capitol Hill.

So, that's that. So much for the denials. So much for the denigration of my sources and my stories. They were right all along. The question is, WHAT DO YOU INTEND TO DO ABOUT IT?

These traitors to their Constitutional oaths have taken their decision -- from politics or blackmail, who is to say -- and now they are hiding from it. The least we can do is smoke them out -- burn up their switchboards, fax machines, overload their emails, Facebooks, and Twitters. There are a whole bunch of so-called "conservative" commentators out there. Are they going to let this pass without comment? These are political creatures who live in front of the camera. New media journalists ought to be grilling them every time on why they are protecting the Obama administration's law-breaking. And YOU can help this process along by asking every one of our so-called friends why they aren't frying these traitorous bastards in the court of public opinion. If you don't fight the cover-up, you are part of it.

My oldest daughter Hannah graduates from Southern Miss today. Her mother will be in attendance, I will not. I'm proud as I can be, though.

Her degree is in business and she did it all on her own, having gone through on pretty much a full ride because of her skills as a soccer goalkeeper. She's going to take the summer off by playing semi-pro soccer in Iceland, expenses paid, and then intends to go to law school.

Hannah and a borrowed M38 carbine. She subsequently got an M44 of her own. (Apologies for the original misidentification and thanks to the sharp-eyed readers who spotted it.)

Intelligent, beautiful, tough-minded, driven -- didn't get it from my side of the family. Still I'm as proud as a frog eatin' fire, as they say in Winston County.

"Progress made under the shadow of the policeman's club is false progress."

I believe that liberty is the only genuinely valuable thing that men have invented, at least in the field of government, in a thousand years. I believe that it is better to be free than to be not free, even when the former is dangerous and the latter safe. I believe that the finest qualities of man can flourish only in free air – that progress made under the shadow of the policeman's club is false progress, and of no permanent value. I believe that any man who takes the liberty of another into his keeping is bound to become a tyrant, and that any man who yields up his liberty, in however slight the measure, is bound to become a slave. -- H.L. Mencken

On the efficacy of passive resistance in the face of the collectivist beast. . .

Had the Japanese got as far as India, Gandhi's theories of "passive resistance" would have floated down the Ganges River with his bayoneted, beheaded carcass. -- Mike Vanderboegh.

In the future . . .

When the histories are written, “National Rifle Association” will be cross-referenced with “Judenrat.” -- Mike Vanderboegh to Sebastian at "Snowflakes in Hell"

"Smash the bloody mirror."

If you find yourself through the looking glass, where the verities of the world you knew and loved no longer apply, there is only one thing to do. Knock the Red Queen on her ass, turn around, and smash the bloody mirror. -- Mike Vanderboegh

From Kurt Hoffman over at Armed and Safe.

"I believe that being despised by the despicable is as good as being admired by the admirable."

From long experience myself, I can only say, "You betcha."

"Only cowards dare cringe."

The fears of man are many. He fears the shadow of death and the closed doors of the future. He is afraid for his friends and for his sons and of the specter of tomorrow. All his life's journey he walks in the lonely corridors of his controlled fears, if he is a man. For only fools will strut, and only cowards dare cringe. -- James Warner Bellah, "Spanish Man's Grave" in Reveille, Curtis Publishing, 1947.

"We fight an enemy that never sleeps."

"As our enemies work bit by bit to deconstruct, we must work bit by bit to REconstruct. Be mindful where we should be. Set goals. We fight an enemy that never sleeps. We must learn to sleep less." -- Mike H. at What McAuliffe Said

"The Fate of Unborn Millions. . ."

"The time is now near at hand which must probably determine, whether Americans are to be, Freemen, or Slaves; whether they are to have any property they can call their own; whether their Houses, and Farms, are to be pillaged and destroyed, and they consigned to a State of Wretchedness from which no human efforts will probably deliver them. The fate of unborn Millions will now depend, under God, on the Courage and Conduct of this army-Our cruel and unrelenting Enemy leaves us no choice but a brave resistance, or the most abject submission; that is all we can expect-We have therefore to resolve to conquer or die." -- George Washington to his troops before the Battle of Long Island.

"We will not go gently . . ."

This is no small thing, to restore a republic after it has fallen into corruption. I have studied history for years and I cannot recall it ever happening. It may be that our task is impossible. Yet, if we do not try then how will we know it can't be done? And if we do not try, it most certainly won't be done. The Founders' Republic, and the larger war for western civilization, will be lost.

But I tell you this: We will not go gently into that bloody collectivist good night. Indeed, we will make with our defiance such a sound as ALL history from that day forward will be forced to note, even if they despise us in the writing of it.

And when we are gone, the scattered, free survivors hiding in the ruins of our once-great republic will sing of our deeds in forbidden songs, tending the flickering flame of individual liberty until it bursts forth again, as it must, generations later. We will live forever, like the Spartans at Thermopylae, in sacred memory.

-- Mike Vanderboegh, The Lessons of Mumbai:Death Cults, the "Socialism of Imbeciles" and Refusing to Submit, 1 December 2008

"A common language of resistance . . ."

"Colonial rebellions throughout the modern world have been acts of shared political imagination. Unless unhappy people develop the capacity to trust other unhappy people, protest remains a local affair easily silenced by traditional authority. Usually, however, a moment arrives when large numbers of men and women realize for the first time that they enjoy the support of strangers, ordinary people much like themselves who happen to live in distant places and whom under normal circumstances they would never meet. It is an intoxicating discovery. A common language of resistance suddenly opens to those who are most vulnerable to painful retribution the possibility of creating a new community. As the conviction of solidarity grows, parochial issues and aspirations merge imperceptibly with a compelling national agenda which only a short time before may have been the dream of only a few. For many Americans colonists this moment occurred late in the spring of 1774." -- T.H. Breen, The Marketplace of Revolution: How Consumer Politics Shaped American Independence, Oxford University Press, 2004, p.1.